Hi Noa and John,
I tend to think of my body as a foil when I'm body surfing or swimming with great speed or sinking on a constant weight dive, with my head, shoulders and upper back as the leading edge (the "fat" part of the wing) and my legs and monofin as the trailing edge.
To effect any trim up or down, I alter the angle of attack on my body by tighteting the abs and adding draft to the trailing edge, which is the fin (flaps down). This increases lift and I rise. To go down, I flatten out to "stall" with my back muscles. It is I think essentially the same manoeuver as Noa describes above, just from a different perspective. This works for me, although I have not expressly tried it body surfing underwater as Noa does. I am going to where waves are in a few weeks and will experiment. With my arms by my sides I can also added the "flap" action for trim.
Side to side trim is more problematic, but still possible when you consider how pressure differences and drag can help you to steer. You can rotate onto your side and apply the same up and down trim method in the new plane. But at high speeds, I wonder if perhaps this is too clumsy?
Another method is to momentarily increase drag on one of the arms by letting it slide out of the streamlined possible, acting as a partial brake and curving you around its axis like putting your hand down on the snow when you are sledding. You could do this even with your hands out in front, although it would be much easier by your sides.
Yet another method (needs testing for higher speeds) is to make use of the torsion available between the upper body and the fin. By lowering one foot relative the the other and dorsiflexing one foot and plantarflexing the other, and also dropping one shoulder to match, you could put the fin and most of your body on a angle much like an aeroplane banked for a turn. Whereas doplhins are relatively cylindrical, we are flatter, so we can curl the edges to apply different kinds of lift to make up for our lack of pectoral and dorsal fins. Thoughts?
Obvioulsy, stereo fins are better for steering and trim, but I love the takeoff with the monofin.
Noa, any news on simulating pectoral fins?
A helmet would probably be a great idea for big surf, although if you are going to get pile-driven into the coral or sand bottom head first, it's not going to do much to save your spinal cord. Good idea to wear one though. Don't most conventional body surfers put one hand out when they surf on the surface?
What I would love to see someday soon is a photograph of someone dolphin-surfing inside a nice big wave from shore, just like those photos of dolphins. Or an underwater photograph. Videos would be a plus. Do you think there's enough interest to start a contest?
2005 Dolphin Surfing Contest
1. Longest ride (witnessed-honor code or video but no blackouts please!)
2. Best photo
3. Best video sequence
4. Special prize for any tricks (shooting out of the water at high speed, uw ride--to wave face ride--to uw ride (wow), and "smacking the lip" (whatever that means for dolphin surfing).
Prizes to be announced, but we'll see if we can get DB to kick in something or else come up with our own prizes. Any suggestions on prizes and categories?
The idea of riding the wave below the surface (getting pulled along) and then suddenly adding a burst of speed to reach the wave face and then bodysurf as most people do and then suddenly duck back into the wave to return to the underwater position just makes my head spin. How cool would THAT be! It would require a long wave but perhaps you could catch the wave really early, long before it breaks, ride it uw (as proven by the foil boards of Rush Randle) until it starts to break and then surge forward to ride it in on the face. I guess ducking back under would be impractical and likely exhausting, but to do it even for a second would be cool.
I also have dreams of riding the face and then doing a sharp turn that sends me flying into the air. Or I suppose, one could try angling sharply upward while underwater and breaching the surface that way. I've managed to breach and jump out of the water so that my fin actually clears, so this would not be impossible.
I need to go somewhere warm where I can experiment all day. Anyone got a couch or a backyard for a tent they can loan me for a week or two this winter?
Okay, enough dreaming...
Pete Scott
Vancouver, BC
